Wednesday, April 9, 2008

According to a recent BBC documentary about meditation, some 10 million people in the Western world practice meditation.

The word meditation seems to mean many different things to different people. Some people associate it with prayer, others with breathing and relaxation, and yet others see it as something you do at the end of a yoga session.

SO...what is this thing called meditation?

The dictionary defines it in a number of ways:1: to engage in contemplation or reflection2: to engage in mental exercise (as concentration on one's breathing or repetition of a mantra) for the purpose of reaching a heightened level of spiritual awareness3: to focus one's thoughts on : reflect on or ponder over4: to plan or project in the mind : intend, purpose

It is also a key discipline in Buddhism – although that does not in itself, make it a religious act. According to The Friends of the Western Buddhist Order, meditation “is a means of transforming the mind. Buddhist meditation practices are techniques that encourage and develop concentration, clarity, and emotional positivity.”

To me, meditation is about quietening the mind and finding a peaceful place within myself (in amongst the to-do lists).

Sounds good huh! So why do some people find it difficult to do?

In my experience in “learning” how to meditate, the prospect of sitting by myself in quiet contemplation, being aware of my breathing and/or reciting a mantra, and attempting to let all thoughts pass through my mind without judgement, seemed ridiculously hard! My mind never seems to stop, so the idea of being still for even just 10 minutes a day - outside of sleep – was a foreign concept.

Over the years, I’ve tried meditation tapes, books and courses – and it certainly helped to be able to discuss the practice of meditation with other people in the same boat as me....ie clueless!

I eventually stumbled across guided meditations or visualisations, whereby a voice guides you into a safe, peaceful scene that’s intended to induce a deeply relaxed state – a state similar to what you might achieve by sitting still and be aware of your breathing. Low and behold, you’re meditating!

My favourite guided meditations include:

- The Celestine Meditations, by Salle Merrill-Redfield (wife of The Celestine Prophesy’s author, James Redfield. There are two 25-minute sessions on this CD; the first does a guided walk through a growth forest, and the second, along a peaceful beach.

- There’s also a stack of free tracks available on iTunes under Podcasts.

Recordings like this can be great for beginners, or if you’re trying to maintain a meditation practice alone. I found that the more I listened to guided visualisations, the more I started to crave silence, rather than someone else’s voice. So I then started to explore the more traditional Buddhist techniques of mindful meditation.

To do this, I recently attended a weekend meditation retreat at the Rivendell Buddhist Retreat Centre, run by The Friends of the Western Buddhist Order. This introductory retreat gave a great overview of the concepts of mindful meditation, alternative sitting postures (that also help energy flow through the body), and general benefits of meditation. It was also really nice to meditate amongst other people. Almost everyone commented that it somehow felt more powerful to be quietly contemplating in a room with 20 other people.

The BBC documentary also spoke of the benefits of meditation, which amongst other things, included calmness, stress reduction, improvements in happiness and wellbeing, improved concentration and focus, mental alertness, and potential reductions in blood pressure in people with high blood pressure!

While I still struggle with meditating daily, or even every other day – I certainly find that when I do it, I feel very relaxed afterwards, sleep better, and generally feel calmer and happier.

In today’s frantic world, I reckon it’s worth taking whatever steps you can to induce a state of relaxation.

Do you meditate? Do you want to meditate but struggle? I’d love to hear your thoughts.

No comments:

About me: Melanie Surplice

Hi! This is my old blog. Please head on over to Surplice of Spirit to see the new improved version, and to check out my gift shop for lovers of cards, crystals and all things mystical

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Hi! I'm the managing director of Revive Holistic Marketing. My vision is to help holistic therapists grow successful businesses; while raising the awareness of the benefits of holistic therapies in the broader community.

As a qualified holistic massage therapist, and a long-time believer in personal development, I'm fascinated by the human body and mind. We all spend much of our lives pursuing happiness, in whatever form that takes on our individual journeys.

Over the last 20 years I have read a lot of the success literature, and explored many aspects of personal development, the spiritual realm, and most recently, a broad range of complementary therapies.

I intend to use this site to pool together resources that I've found useful along the way. I hope you find it useful too, and welcome your suggestions. We're all in this thing called "life" together!

Please feel free to contact me by email with any comments or suggestions.

“Let your mind start a journey thru a strange new world. Leave all thoughts of the world you knew before. Let your soul take you where you long to be...Close your eyes let your spirit start to soar, and you'll live as you've never lived before.” - Erich Fromm

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Success is the good fortune that comes from aspiration, desperation, perspiration and inspiration. - Evan Esar

Change and growth take place when a person has risked himself and dares to become involved with experimenting with his own life. - Herbert Otto

The talent of success is nothing more than doing what you can do, well. - Henry W. Longfellow

The first step in the acquisition of wisdom is silence, the second listening, the third memory, the fourth practice, the fifth teaching others. - Solomon Ibn Gabriol

Insist on yourself. Never imitate. - Ralph Waldo Emerson

It was a high counsel that I once heard given to a young person, "Always do what you are afraid to do." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

The Invitation

It doesn’t interest me what you do for a living. I want to know what you ache for and if you dare to dream of meeting your heart’s longing.

It doesn’t interest me how old you are. I want to know if you will risk looking like a fool for love for your dream for the adventure of being alive.

It doesn’t interest me what planets are squaring your moon... I want to know if you have touched the centre of your own sorrow if you have been opened by life’s betrayals or have become shrivelled and closed from fear of further pain.

I want to know if you can sit with pain mine or your own without moving to hide it or fade it or fix it.

I want to know if you can be with joy mine or your own if you can dance with wildness and let the ecstasy fill you to the tips of your fingers and toes without cautioning us to be careful be realistic remember the limitations of being human.

It doesn’t interest me if the story you are telling me is true. I want to know if you can disappoint another to be true to yourself. If you can bear the accusation of betrayal and not betray your own soul. If you can be faithless and therefore trustworthy.

I want to know if you can see Beauty even when it is not pretty every day. And if you can source your own life from its presence. I want to know if you can live with failure yours and mine and still stand at the edge of the lake and shout to the silver of the full moon, “Yes.”

It doesn’t interest me to know where you live or how much money you have. I want to know if you can get up after the night of grief and despair weary and bruised to the bone and do what needs to be done to feed the children.

It doesn’t interest me who you know or how you came to be here. I want to know if you will stand in the centre of the fire with me and not shrink back.

It doesn’t interest me where or what or with whom you have studied. I want to know what sustains you from the inside when all else falls away. I want to know if you can be alone with yourself and if you truly like the company you keep in the empty moments. - Oriah Mountain Dreamer

From "A Return to Love"

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.” - Marianne Williamson

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Feel free to post any comments or questions on the blog, or you can email me at melanie _ surplice @ hotmail . com. (Remove the spaces in the email address!).